interesting pain

[Todd]

Greetings all.  I just finished my final PT session for my left hip which was done on 1/7/09--about 11 weeks ago.  I was wondering if any of you have insight into some pain that I'm having.  I'm fine doing a variety of lunges, stretches and squats.  Anytime that the hip is under load or has weight on it as when doing those exercises I feel alright.  When I release the load or take weight off my leg I feel the pain.  It's as if when compressed everything is fine, and when released the muscles don't spring back as they should.  Any thoughts?

[JeanM]

Is the pain that you feel in your groin?  If so, then I had exactly that same experience.  It especially happened whenever I finished doing a one legged PT exercise.  It would feel fine while I was actually doing the exercise, then when I finished it, my groin would hurt.  Also, I remember there was one exercise where I stood on my operated leg next to a wall and pushed my other leg outward into the wall.  Afterwards, my groin hurt so badly we stopped doing it.  My PT had an explanation for it.  But, I can't remember exactly what it was.  But, I think it was basically because the large muscles in my glutes were not yet strong enough to do a proper job of supporting me and  the much smaller muscles running through my groin were doing a lot more to support me than they're really meant to do.  So, those muscles were pretty annoyed and inflamed.  How's that for a layperson explanation? 

The best news is that as I got stronger the problem resolved itself and I no longer have that groin pain.  So, I wouldn't worry too much about it and give yourself some more time.

Jean